CleanupUK’s Work in Deprived Areas

The Current Project

The Beautiful Boroughs Project was originally conceived as part of the Changing Places programme coordinated for the 2012 Games by The London Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG). It has been running for the last 6 years and now covers the 11 boroughs of Barking and Dagenham, Camden, Enfield, Greenwich, Hackney, Haringey, Islington, Newham, Tower Hamlets, Redbridge and Waltham Forest.

The aim of the project has been to facilitate the formation of sustainable residents’ cleanup groups in the more deprived areas of these boroughs with the objective not only of helping people to keep their area free of litter but also, perhaps more importantly, helping to bring the community together, to make their area safer and to increase community spirit and cooperation.

We have achieved this by employing local Project Coordinators who have been assisted in their community engagement activities by local volunteers. To date, the project’s has engaged more than 130 groups of residents.

The feedback that we have received from residents includes comments such as :

“It’s not just about litter – it’s about getting to know other people”

“One person can become two, and then become three – we can take on the world like that!”

“The people I met on the litter-pick are very friendly and I now know that there are very good people in my area”.

Our residents’ survey to identify the Beautiful Boroughs Project’s impact shows where the project has achieved results. The percentage of residents shown below agree or strongly agree that, as a result of participation in the project :

§ they have contact with more people in their local community - 87%

§ they are now more motivated to pick up litter in their community – 89%

§ they feel safer in their neighbourhood – 52%

§ their community has become more friendly – 74%

§ they notice there is less litter in their local area – 62%

§ they feel their actions can help to change their community – 92%

§ they feel their community has become stronger – 65%

§ they are more willing to act on issues in their community – 84%

Please have a look at the case studies we have prepared which outline how the project has worked for residents’ groups : go to www.cleanupuk.org.uk and click on “Our Stories”.

Next Steps

Now that the project has been embedded in London, we are expanding this work to Birmingham as The Beautiful Birmingham Project. We have agreed with Birmingham City Council that we will initially work in the wards of Shard End, Bordesley Green and Kingstanding and subsequently expand into other wards in Birmingham.

The new post of Project Manager will supervise the new Birmingham-based Project Coordinator as well as the two current London-based Project Coordinator posts.

CleanupUK

CleanupUK is a charity, established in 2007, dedicated to using the activity of litter-picking to make deprived communities safer and stronger. The charity aims to improve quality of life, safety and community spirit, and play a part in halting neighbourhood decline in the most deprived local authority areas in the UK by supporting and encouraging volunteer litter-picking activity.

Contact

Ann Gardner – Administrator, CleanupUK

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